soledad is off today. president obama will hold a critical meeting at the white house. and blame game is down right nasty. tributes from the pentagon, white house, and gulf war buddies after the passing of stormin general norman schwarzkopf. and teachers learning how to shoot in case a gunman walks into their classroom. the man offering lessons were free. "starting point" begins right now. friday, december 28th. and our starting point, the pace in's economy and your take home pay on the chopping block. four days remain before the u.s. goes over the edge. that means tax hikes and spending cuts that could trigger another recession. congressional leaders will meet today at 3:00 p.m. eastern time.

the full house not even expected to return to work until sunday. here is the guest list for today's showdown. the president, vice president biden, senate majority leader harry reid and house minority leader nancy pelosi on the democratic side. house speaker john boehner, mitch mcconnell representing the republicans. brianna keilar live from washington. what do we expect to happen today? any new offers from the president or house speaker? >> we don't know. right now, all eyes on the senate to see what senate majority leader harry reid can cobble together to get some republican support. technically, it's still possible to come to an agreement. that said, politically is a different story, and the prospects for coming to a deal are starting to dim. right now, we're hearing a whole lot of the blame game. a lot of public posturing from both sides as they prepare for the possibility of going over

the cliff. let's listen to harry reid. >> we are here in washington working while members of the house of representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. they should be here. >> now, the speaker of the house, john boehner, sort of retorting to reid, ali. in a conference call he said the leaders should do more -- or pardon me. less talking and more legislating. he wants the senate to take up a bill that the house has already passed to extend all rates and either take it up in whole or amend it. amending it, and changing that threshold down to closer to what president obama wants. a quarter million as a threshold. that seems more likely. we'll watch this meeting. we don't know what will happen, that's the truth much and we'll watch to see what will come out

of it. does it seem like perhaps there is a spirit of compromise? or do they come out very far apart. an indication that it will be read as an indication we may go over the cliff. >> nothing is being done until the house is back in session. we are being looking at the earliest at sunday evening if there is even a deal to vote on. >> that's true. that said if there is some sort of agreement, you could get wind of the before then. obviously, the house would have to pass something. it has to get through the senate first. you would start -- if there was an agreement, you could see movement before then. >> now would be a very good time to assess the impact of the fiscal cliff on your 401(k). despite the fact that leaders are meeting this afternoon. the dow, nasdaq, and s & p futures all pointing lower this hour.

investigators have no stomach for this high-stakes game of chicken played on capitol hill. look at yesterday's chart for the dow. the index taking a big dive at the open with investors finding little hope for a fiscal cliff come on misz. when word came out that the two sides were meeting, the dow rebounded to positive territory. expect another day like that today. we'll talk with debbie stabenow. he was the most popular american general since world war ii. tributes from around the world are pouring in for stormin norman schwarzkopf. he crushed the iraqi military in the 1999 gulf war and liberated kuwait. he may have been the perfect front man for a war that played out live in your living room. barbara starr live with more. barb rar? >> president obama remembers

general is schwarzkopf as an american original. he accomplished something on the battlefield few others can claim. booting the iraqi military. the invasion force from saddam hussein out of kuwait after august of 11990. commanding 700,000 coalition forces and got the job done in a ground war that lasted some 100 hours after six weeks of an air campaign. a real rout of those iraqi forces. and even general colin powell. one of his closest friends remembering him today. powell, chair of the joint chiefs at the time. powell saying "his leadership not only inspired his troops, but also inspired the nation. he was a good friend of mine, a close buddy. i had miss him. that from one of his colleagues in the army.

schwarzkopf and powell didn't always see eye to eye. part of the reason he got the name stormin norman. powell would have to tame schwarzkopf's fiery temper. he set the tone for new generals. the televised press conference bringing the war into homes around the world and really the first time we saw the commander at the front lines standing up there exexplaining what was going on. >> and schwarzkopf agreed with president bush's decision to stop the war in 1991, leaving saddam hussein in power, and when the u.s. went back in 2003, he doubted victory would be that easy. >> he was proven right on so many front. he and president george h.w. bush, agreed, they didn't want to "go all the way to baghdad." if u.s. forces went to baghdad and occupied iraq in the winter of 1991, they would basically have to take responsibility for

the country. it would be a long, bogged down expensive process. they decided that their real goal was to gelt iraqis out of kuwait. accomplished that, want to go further and later in 2003, they were proven right when the u.s. invasion would become something that would last so many years. >> barbara star to the pentagon. to houston now, where 88-year-old former president george h.w. bush remains in intensive care, treated for an elevated feeter. he appreciates the outpouring of support he received from around the world, but not planning on going anywhere soon. miguel marquez joins us from houston. what did his people say? put the harps away? >> yeah, that is from his current chief of staff, gene becker. put the harps away, not going anywhere. look, is he -- he is sick, but not critical is what i can gather from what folks are

saying on the ground in houston. he is 88 years old. in the hospital a little over a month. fought a bronchiol infection. it has taken its toll. and going into icu got everyone excited. but doctors wanted him there just to keep track of how he is doing. monitoring him more minutely. the family wanting to keep a tight lid on information. some family members coming in. dorothy, george w. wish, number 43, maybe jeb bush rushing to the bed side. the family wants everyone to know that they thank them for their concern, but they hope soon he will be going home. doctors will take it day by day. >> we'll check in with you later

on in the morning. miguel marquez in houston. and now we have alina cho for the rest of the news. >> good morning, ali. good morning, everybody. for all of you traveling back to the holiday vacation or heading to one, a new weather threat after that powerful winter storm that brought hoard rife haeking snow. ten deaths blamed on this week's snow. 2,400 flights already canceled. bonnie schneider with a look at the forecast. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, alina. the new threat, freezing rain frttle rock, arkansas, paducah, kentucky, branson, missouri. it's the same region that got hit with snow on christmas day. this will not freeze over. when temperatures are as cold as they are across oklahoma and certainly into little rock, likely to see ice accumulate on

top of snow and that could compromise powerlines. keep that in mind for those of you traveling on i-40 specifically. behind the system exiting the northeast, much colder air. temperatures in the 20s this morning. brutally cold, bundle up in new york or pennsylvania. taking a look at the storm system setting up for this weekend. traveling no, pressure slides across the southeast. faster moving storm. heavier snow less likely with it, but, remember, it's a nuisance. 1 to 3 inches for the metropolitan new york city area. and we could see heavier snow for areas of new england. in fact, take a look at computer models, forecasting between 6 to 8 inches of some areas of massachusetts, rhode island, and this will impact travel likely. for today, light snow falling in the chicago area that will impact travel across the midwest. minneapolis, detroit, all of the

cities face potential drelays today. the wind still a factor today as it was yesterday. stormy conditions down south. more nasty weather as we wrap up the holiday week. >> just when you thought it was over. all right, thank you so much. homicide detectives in new york city are looking for a woman who pushed a man off a subway platform, right into the path of an oncoming train. the victim died last night after he was hit by a number 7 train as it pulled into a stop in queens. nypd surveillance shows the suspect running away from the station there, see her there? before the incident the woman was seen walking back and forth on the platform, apparently talking to herself. north korea likely deceived the u.s. and its asian allies deliberately catching them offguard before the launch of its long-range rocket earlier this month. according to a u.s. official,

likely scenario, north korea was lying about technical problems days before the launch. another conclusion? north korea knows how to counter u.s. infell on what it's up to. not clear who will replace lisa jackson as head of the environmental protection agency. jackson will step down in january, just after the president's state of the union address. the epa created new standard for air pollution from coal power plants on her watch. hillary clinton won't be on the sidelines much longer. back at work next week after spending the past three fighting off what the state department says was the stomach flu and a concussion from when she fainted. doctors have grounded her from overseas travel for a few more weengz. her return means she may soon testify before congress on the attack in benghazi. >> lisa jackson, if republicans have their way in the fiscal cliff conversation, they get rid

of the epa. they talk about the cannot of education, the department of agency and epa waste of money. >> cost too much, all about regulations. are you one of the few people employed to this organization who has been to north korea. >> twice. i hope to go back again soon. just ahead, a warning to democrats from republicans, they will not write a blank check to solve the fiscal cliff. reaction from debbie snab now of michigan, next. plus, the best selling river of "gone baby gone" and mystic river" has a new crime to solve. where is his dog? dennis lahane is asking for help finding his dog tessa. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again.

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welcome back to "starting point." a high-stakes meeting later on today at the white house, on avoiding the fiscal cliff. president obama meets with four congressional leaders, boehner, pelosi, reid, and o'connell. the rhetoric getting more angry and disconnected in final moments. i want to bring in michigan senator debbie stabenow now. thank you so much for being with us. >> sure. >> it really is disconnected. everywhere i go, people ask me a simple question. why can't they get this deal done? harry reid got up and said we're just procedurally not going to get this done in time, it caused people to say why not?

this is the most anticipated problem we've ever had. it just -- regular folks folks look at washington and say what is going on. >> ali, i'm here and saying what is going on. there are basically three pieces to solving the deficit, right? one is spending and we have agrowed to $1.6 trillion in spending cuts in the last two years and the other is spending cuts. we put forth spending cuts of over $700 billion. not cutting care to seniors, but cutting overpayments to insurance companies. the burden of the deficit must not just be on the middle class. the wealthy have to kick in. we sent a bill to the house in july that says 98% americans, income up to 240,000 would continue to get tax cuts. above that, people would may more. they made excuses, the bill wasn't right. we have the bill in the house,

the bill in the senate. the bottom line is when the speaker put on the floor last week the bill that would say, okay, how about everybody up to $1 million gets a tax cut. couldn't even pass that. we're stuck. we're really stuck. >> the house gop said they put a bill forward in august. so everyone sort of covering themselves saying we got a bill. we didn't ask to go over the fiscal cliff. i'm kind of glad at 3:00 this afternoon, both sides of the house leader smip and house are meeting. do you think that there is the will to go in and say we've got to solve this. guys, we have just got to solve this. we cannot riske putting america back into a recession. consumers are feeling badly now, but were feeling okay. do your colleagues get how serious this is? we could send america to recession? >> i believe in the senate that we do. we're having a lot of very important, very good, positive conversations between democrats and republicans, i believe the

president does. the tough part is in the house. they have taken this very extreme position about protecting the wealthiest americans at all costs, even holding middle class families hostage to do it. and that really isn't rhetoric. we're seeing it over and over again. we have one bottom line, when we get done, we have to solve the problem and can't be shifted onto the middle class one more time. other than that, we want to sit down and continue to solve it. we have done cuts, tackled entitlements, we know there needs to be more. we have to say to the wealthiest americans, time to set up and be part of the solution, if we can't get that, we're in a very tough spot. middle class families can't afford an average $2,200 in increased taxes starting in january. one constituent of mine says that's four months groceries.

>> this is absolutely real money. we'll see holiday subpoenaing was hit. consumer confidence turned down for the first time in a long time. here is something ta dana bash got, where she said, republican told her, some senate democrats have discussed holding on on bringing up a proposal until the final final days of 2012, which we happen to be in at the moment. to increase pressure on republicans to support avoiding higher taxes on everyone due to the fiscal cliff. >> the clock is running down. now is the moment. and all i can tell you, we have had various groups, the gang of six, the gang of eight. people meeting, talking, i've had multiple conversations since getting back yesterday. i just don't believe it in the senate. i absolute believe if it were up to the senate democrats and republicans, we would get this done. the problem is, unfortunately, with the extreme element insist

the house, for whatever reason the speaker won't act. even when something like the reform farm bill to eliminate subsidies which everybody agree should be eliminated. we can't get them to that i that out. so frustrating that we send things over that are bipartisan that do make cuts and to ask those at the top to pay a little more to help out and it keeps getting stuck, i don't know, but i know this is serious. i know that in life you have to compromise, that's what it's all about bottomline, this whole thing is done, middle class families can't be holding the bag again. which is what seems to happen. >> you have a good sense that compromise means everyone gives something up. we would love to get a

resolution. debbie stabenow of michigan. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. ahead on "starting point." two weeks from the horrific shootings in newtown, connecticut. now some teachers getting on board with the idea of getting armed. dozens of people trained to shoot. the man who taught it and one of the teacher who's took it coming up. visit usps.com pay, print, and have it picked up for free. any time of year. ♪ nice sweater. thank you. ♪ thank you. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money?

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♪ ♪ i need you by my side >> 24 minutes after the hour. soul singer fontella bass has died best known for "rescue me." the song sure had legs it was rerecorded by cher, pat beena tar. and more. she died wednesday night of complications of a heart attack she suffered three weeks ago. 7 yea2 years old. deteriorating security in the central african republic has forced the u.s. state department to temporarily suspend operations there. the u.s. ambassador, diplomatic

team and private american citizens are out of the capital. the country's president has asked france and the u.s. to help stop rebel advances. a florida fossils dealer faces 17 years in prison after admitting he illegally bought and sold dinosaur bones, including three tyrannosaurus skeletons. eric has agreed to give up claims on a skeleton sold at auction for more than $1 million. sentencing set for april. >> what's the crime? they weren't his bones? or you can't sell dinosaur bones? >> you can't sell dinosaur bones. who knew they were so much? >> we'll talk about that even more. coming up, a sad story. parents in the u.s. banned from adopting children in russia. the controversial new law signed

hours ago, and hundreds of teachers get their hands on guns. learning to shoot. the man offering the course for free and a teacher who took the class. e, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪ i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

welcome back to "starting point." atlanta, the sun coming up in that beautiful, beautiful city. we're back here on "starting point." our team is ron brown, editorial director at "national journal."

will cain from the blaze and the ghost of roland martin. do you need a note from the principal's office? somebody needs to explain to me what goes on with roland. he's never there. >> how do i get that freedom? >> the thing about roland, once he arrives, you won't know he was missing in the first place. alina chochl. >> count on me, ali velshi. good morning, a fight between world powers with agonized parents and children caught in the middle. russian president has banned u.s. families from adopting russian orphans. moscow says too many orphans have been abused by their new american parents. state department says it is willing to talk more about keeping the children safe. fiscal cliff isn't the only threat to the u.s. economy. get a load of this. the container cliff. nearly 15,000 dockworkers from

maryland to texas are threatening to strike, starting sunday, which could shut down more than a dozen key shipping ports and cripple commerce across the country. dock on workers are demanding higher container royalties to boost their pay. did the newtown school shooter have an evil gene? scientists at the university of connecticut will study adam lanza's dna to see if a mutation or ab normality could have made him more violent? this is the first study of its kind on a mass killer. jockeying started for john kerry's senate seat, even before it's vacant. massachusetts congressman ed markey throwing his hat into the ring in kerry becomes secretary of state, which is expected, a special election will be held early this summer. markey is the first prominent candidate to declare for the race. love this story. paying it forward by paying it backward. a story of rampant generosity

and good will in canada happening in winnipeg. one customer pulled up to a coffee shop drive through in winnipeg and paid for the person behind them. the next person did the same and on and on and on. 228 customers in all. >> you hear the shout from drive through. my manager, todd, there. hear him screaming out random numbers, 147. pumped up. filled the building with excitement. >> now it's such a habit started here and people come back to this one, knowing it's either going to be your day, you will start it, and it will come back, a huge cycle. >> no one knows who started the chain or who ended it. do you want to be the person that ends that chain? >> i will tell you, all i do every time i go back to canada is go to tim horton's, a national institute. just great. >> look who we have here. do you have a note from the

opinion practicall principal? >> remember, i to a radio show. >> this is roland martin, in case you didn't know. an interesting story here. two weeks as you know today since a gunman broke into sandy hook elementary school, killed 26 teachers and students. an ongoing debate on how to prevents another tragedy from happening, including a suggestion to arm school teachers. take a look what happened yesterday in west valley, utah, west valley city in utah. a six-hour seminar, teachers taught, among other things, how to properly handle a gun. and we have the chair of the utah shooting sports council and casey hansen, a special education teach they're trained to use a gun at clark's class. thank you, both. clark, have you been teaching these courses for a long time. i guess after newtown, you want

to kick it up. free instruction to public service workers, teachers, other people other than teachers what do you intend to do? what has the response been? >> well, we're teaching -- pore the past 12 years, we have taught school employees free of charge. a fantastic turnout yesterday. we are not arming teachers. far be it. it's up to them whether they want to obtain the permit and want to get a firearm. it's still up to them if they carry it in the schools. after the events in connecticut and aurora, colorado, a lot more teachers are going to go to school armed are are what's it take to get a conceal carry measure mitt in utah? >> takes a class by certified instructor. plenty of those here in utah and you have to sit through the class, a background check. the background check is checked every 24 hours after that. >> casey, welcome.

you are a k-12 special education teacher. what do you teach? do you carry a gun at school? >> i am a hearing specialist. i work with special education students at 14 different schools each week, and i currently do not carry a weapon to school. >> do you have a gun at all? >> i don't right now. i would like additional training before i even consider which gun i would reich and if i bring it to school. >> would you if you got the additional training and got a gun, would you consider keeping a gun on? your class at school, on you or locked away? >> honestly i would. i would take a bullet for any one of the students in the school, if it came down to it, and i just want extra options to protect myself as well as my students. so i believe i would bring one. >> clark, let me ask you this. in your training where it applies to teachers or someone with students or other people around them a lot, is there

extra training given ton suring -- i would image nin a school situation, one of the things you want to be cautious of is a student getting hold of that gun. someone stealing that gun. do you deal with that specifically? >> well, we teach weapon retention of sorts. but, you know, it -- we trust these professionals. like casey, to be around our kids for eight to nip hours a day. why would anyone think they would act in some way to put children at harm? but they will act with good character and good decorum, and especially when they have a firearm them realize the risks and the -- or the potential risks involved in that. we have been doing this for 12 years. we haven't had a problem in utah, despite the dire predictions from the other side. there are lots of teachers in utah that are already carrying in schools and they don't have to notify the district or the opinion pal about it either.

>> i can understand why in a crisis someone would want an armed adult in a school. on the last few months, we had a shooting at a movie theater, a sikh temple and firefighters fired on and killed. is the local extension on this, be we should be arming those folks at all of those places as well? where too you draw the line? >> we'll give folks like casey another option rather than jumping in front of a bullet. it's why we put fire extinguishers and medical kits in classrooms. >> should firefighters be armed as well? should movie ushers be armed? >> we shouldn't necessarily disarm firefighters. i wouldn't think we would want to disarm them. it's up to them if -- you know? who is going to protect the firefighters then? who exactly does somebody call

when a shooter comes into the school? they call people with guns, but, unfortunately, the people with the guns show up a little too late. the actual first responders are folks just like casey here who engage the gunman and we learned from sad experience, if they are denied the right to have a firearm, they end up getting shot and students get shot along with them. we want to give them another option. >> you just said teacher who's bring guns into the classroom don't have to notify the school district, principal as well. i have a lot of teachers on my social media pages said this is the last thing they want to do. should patients be notified if their children is sitting in a classroom where a teacher is armed with a gun? >> no. why should they be? this teacher is acting in a professional manner. if they acted in an unprofessional manner, then they would be removed. >> let me ask you this, clark.

>> we trust our kids with these teachers every day. >> trust them to teach. you are putting a lot of weight on the fact that we check people and they have background checks. we have a report from the "salt lake city tribune" you trained jason derrick brown, charged of shooting and killing an armored car guard. took your class while working to get a concealed weapons permit. passed all the necessary background checks. >> that's not true. he did not. >> what part isn't true? >> he wasn't an fbi fugitive when i taught him. >> i get that you trained a guy that became a fugitive after shooting somebody dead. >> yeah, that is true. he never got an opportunity to pass the background. it was stopped just before that. >> how did he get the gun? how did he get the gun? >> we sold him the gun. >> just said you can't get a gun

without a become groubackground check. did you steell a man a gun witht a background check? >> no. >> you just said that you sold him a gun. which is it? >> he did pass the background check for the firearm. >> that was my question. >> casey, are you concerned you might be in -- how do we deal with this? let's take this at face value. you and others trained properly in terms of safety. comfortable with a gun. what happens? you keep a gun in your classroom perhaps. locked one hopes and then how -- you have that added responsibility of making sure you are trained to move it properly. you are amongst people who may not be, including students. does that worry you? >> it does worry me. but i am going to keep my gun on

me. i am at four, five, six different schools a day. i travel a lot. i can't keep it in a classroom, locked in a building. it will be on me, i won't draw attention to it. i won't tell my students, hey, just, fyi, i'm carrying a weapon on me. i'm just not going to say anything to the students. that's not their worry. their worry is to learn, to grow up and be our future. and that's all they need to worry about. they don't need to worry about coming to school and somebody attacking them and somebody possibly shooting them. i mean, our kids as young as kindergarten, understand that bad guys are -- bad guys could come into the school, and hurt them, and we don't want them to worry about that. we need to keep on requesting with our he indication and they shouldn't -- small children shouldn't have to worry that school should be unsafe. >> from your lips to god's ears,

i hope kids never have to worry about anything other than getting an education. thanks to both of you for being with us this morning. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. >> speaking of guns, the nra has clarified its stance on arming teachers. when we come back. have you seen tessa? help find the author dennis lahane's dog. he'll write you into his next novel. connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. we're going to wake the world up. and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. cisco. tomorrow starts here. make a wish!

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a softer stance from the national rifle association, and they said schools themselves should decide how to protect children. the nra president david >> when wayne la pierre spoke about a week ago, he suggested what should happen, in every school district, administrators, teachers and parents should sit down and ask what's needed to protect the students in that school. some of them will want police officers there. others will want private security guards. may be some place where is they want volunteers to do it. we're willing to work everybody on those questions.

>> u.s.a much softer stance tha week ago. >> i call on congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this pace in. >> all right. i know you are taking different sides on this kind of issue. wane la pierre held about the weirdest press conference i have ever seen. it wasn't actually a press conference, because he didn't take questions. keane didn't make a correction. la pierre called on congress to appropriate money to put armed guards in schools immediately before students got back from holidays. now, before any debate on regulation or gun control. that was a ridiculous statement, and keane is backing off. >> 100,000 schools. here is the deal. i think as interviews with the

gentleman in utah, this conversation in the wake of newtown is incredibly emotion. we seek answers and solutions on how to fix something that might be inherently unfixable. we're talking about putting armed guards in schools, arming teachers, banning guns that were involved in the shooting. we have to take into account a larger content. mass shootings down, victims are down, statistics across the board over wide range of times suggests this is a rare and horrible incident. >> the nra -- the issue, nra blamed everybody but guns, blamed the media, video games, which by the way are played everywhere in the entire world. and media everywhere in the entire world. nothing to do with guns. guns can't possibly be part of the problem according to the nra. >> the nra, so dedicated to protect the second amendment, willing to sell out the first and many other constitutional

amendments we hold deer. >> you talk about this rare, you have newtown across the country when you look at the collective desk. the point where you talk about whether it's arming teachers or gun control or mental illness, you are trying to confront as many pieces of the puz elt as possible. no one solution. one-dimensional conversation only about guns that is a ridiculous conversation it has to be a much broader, but you can't have some barriers to try and prevent some things from happening. >> you hear the cultural divide in the last statement. >> you asked about firefighters. >> they should be armed. and i think roland is right. a multidimensional problem. in 1994 when we passed the assault weapons ban, part of a comprehensive crimes bill.

ultimately you have to attack a problem like this from all sides. very difficult when you have a fundamental cultural divide and a big chunk of the country says the answer is more guns, others that are very focused. >> it's also asking the question, do you propose the solution is solving the problem. the assault weapons ban. statistics show research ever does not reduce gun violence. >> also, if you you help find this missing gone, you will get a character in a new novel. dennis lahane is going to extreme measures to find his dog. if you behind her, you will be famous. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price.

and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind.

welcome back. dennis lahane best selling author has got a crime to solve of his own, where is his black and tan beagle tessa? she was last seen christmas eve in brookline, massachusetts, where she jumped the fence.

he's offering to write the person who finds his dog into his next book. big fan of your books by the way. how did this happen? you're in florida, dog's in massachusetts. >> yeah, dog's in massachusetts and we had somebody watching out for the dogs and unfortunately, a gate was left unlocked and tessa got through the gate, so she just she got out into the wilds of brookline in boston. >> you got a large fan base and i guess you posted this on social media so you got people out there looking for the dog? >> yeah, i'm kind of overwhelmed by social media, i never understood until i did this, i put up a little note on my facebook page and said if anybody gets information that leads to her coming home i just thought instead of putting a reward, put something different, i'll name a character in a book after you and it metasthesized and the next thing i know i'm getting phone calls from cnn.

>> we're hoping to find the dog. what happens to whoever finds it, a team effort, you'll deal with it, you'll get their names? >> we'll deal with it, absolutely. the only caveat i would say, the novel i'm writing now is set in the 1930s so if your name is heather or crystal probably wouldn't fit in a 1930s novel but definitely in a present day one. >> it is guaranteed to be a positive character in the novel? >> no. [ laughter ] >> all right. >> i never know. >> so it's a roll of the dice if you enlist in this cause. >> yeah, the only thingly say, whenever i do this, i do this for a lot of charities. the one thing i say i would never make you somebody truly awful. >> but we could be gangsters. >> could you tell us one or two of your previous characters written in from someone you knew or helped you or you got through a char isn't it. >> i'm trying to think, there was a guy in "live by night" one of the state police officers in

"live by night" who dives into the water after a woman was from a charity. i end up getting a list and i punch them in as i go through but no huge name that i can think of, no like primary character. >> no "mystic river" sean penn character? >> no, he wasn't named after anybody. >> somebody has to ask, if did you fire the person who looked after your dog? >> oh, god, no, these are honest mistakes. no, who would do that? >> i'm curious to know if you have any leads. you said the response has been tremendous, obviously you haven't found the dog but has anybody even spotted tessa? >> there have been some spottings but they turned out to be, it's fascinating they turned out to be false. there was several spottings and it turned out to be of all

things a raccoon. >> which isn't going to get you written into anything. >> no. >> since we got pictures of tessa, we're consumed with becoming famous in one of your books in your movie. tessa no tags but tessa has a microchip. if somebody's looking for tessa. >> she is super fast. she's very, very sweet but she's also wary. she was a rescue dog, taken off the streets so she's going to be a little wary, skittish, so don't chase her and if you see her, contact any of the numbers that have been left or any of the websites, and we will get the proper authorities out to find her. >> contact cnn, too, we'll track you down. dennis, good luck. it's a creative way to enhance the search for your dog but ultimately those of us with pets know what an issue this is, how serious this is. dennis we wish you the best of luck and thank you for being with us. when it all works out think of

us as having helped the search as well. >> send your names and we'll get you in there. i definitely do not promise what type of person you will. >> i agreedy bunch of poker players. >> ali velshi, 1930s character. >> that will work. >> dennis lahane, famous author thank you. coming up on "starting point" why peter parker was killed off after 50 years as "the amazing spider-man." i don't understand that. keeping a close eye on washington, will a high-level meeting at the white house this afternoon be the answer to the fiscal cliff mess? i don't know. you're watching "starting point." we'll talk about it when we come back. questions? anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues

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good morning to you. i'm ali velshi. soledad is off today. power meeting at the white house in a few hours. president obama holds a critical powwow as the blame game gets nasty and the iffiscal cliff ge dangerously club. tributes pouring in for the gulf war hero general norman schwartzkopf this morning and spider-man is dead, well not really but someone else may be wearing his tights. did i just say that? >> yes you did. hope they washed them first. >> it's friday, december 28th. "starting point" begins right now.

good morning, our team this morning is ron brownstein, the one concerned about spider-man's tights being washed, the editorial director at "national journal" will cain writer for the blaze and roland martin host of "washington watch" alina cho is with us as well. your paycheck and the u.s. economy both on the line when the president and congressional leaders meet at the white house this afternoon for another round of fiscal cliff talks. in four days your take-home pay shrinks and the government spending gets slashed if elected officials cannot figure out a way to get compromised, all in the hanlds of the six leaders. this afternoon the president, vice president biden, senate majority leader harry reid, house minority leader nancy pelosi, all on the democratic side, mitch mcconnell representing the republicans, white house correspondent brianna keilar, the house

doesn't return to work until sunday so they'll work on a framework hopefully could get voted on sunday evening we might have a deal before monday. am i being ridiculous? >> reporter: maybe not sunday evening, maybe on monday, that's the best case scenario but ali, i will tell you talking to sources this morning, even though technically it is possible for there to be a deal, it seems increasingly unlikely. i'm hearing a real lack of confidence that we don't go over the fiscal cliff and i think the expectation is that perhaps we go over it for a day or two, and some are rationalizing that you can go over it maybe for a day or two, and it's still going to be okay, that it's something that can be resolved and of course as you know the markets will open on january 2nd, and the thought is that if there is something in the works that perhaps that will be a good sign and will be somewhat encouraging even if we do go over the cliff.

the senate was in yesterday, and all eyes are very much on the senate as it's seen that senate majority leader harry reid will be the next one to act, trying to come up with some sort of framework that can get some buy-in from senate republicans, and ultimately then would need some buy-in from house republicans, but he's not going to be able to do it without some support, so the expectation is that the senate will be taking up a bill that the house passed quite a while ago that would extend all rates for americans and that they could, for all americans but they could take that up and amend it so that the threshold is brought down. as you know, ali, the president wants the threshold for those tax rate increases to be at $250,000. it seems like that's something that republicans won't sign on to, but certainly i don't think the expectation is that all rates would be extended. >> up to $400,000 and looks like they pulled back from that. who knows what's going to happen except i was supposed to be off and monday and tuesday and based

on what you're telling me -- exactly i will see you both days. >> reporter: happy new year ali. >> great to ring in 2013 with you. prix jana we'll checkn with you later and for days to come. >> all of the senators complaining about coming back to work. there are americans who are saying shut up, we have to go to work. i mean seriously. >> they're complaining about coming back not to go to work because nothing has been happening. >> at least we're coming back to work, we'll be working. >> most of the senators are sitting in the gallery just like we are. >> i hear you. this morning a different story, he's being remembered as the hero of "desert storm" tributes are pouring in for stormin' norman schwartzkopf, he steamrolled the iraqi military in the 1991 gulf war, drove saddam hussein out of kuwait. schwartzkopf may have been the front man for the first war that fully played out in your living room tv. barbara starr, norman

schwartzkopf quite a legend. >> absolutely. i remember landing in saudi arabia in late 1990, starting to cover that war and we all had a sense something very different was about to happen. he was the general that succeeded in pushing the iraqi invasion out of kuwait, six-week air war, 100-hour ground war. he got the job done that he was ordered to do. few generals can really claim that. he is being remembered as an american original, and norman schwartzkopf in his own words is a classic, key general in american history. i want you to listen to what he thought about war when he spoke to larry king back in 1992. >> i hate war, those of you who know you have to go to war go to

war. good generalship you have to figure out how to accomplish your mission with a minimum loss of human life. >> i think many people would tell you that's not just good generalship, that is great generalship. really key leaders in american history are those against war. anyone will tell you his close colleague during that time, general colin powell, who was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at the time issued a statement saying in part, "his leadership not only inspired his troops, but also inspired the nation. he was a good friend of mine, a close buddy. i will miss him." general schwarzkopf with the well remembered televised news briefings, bringing the war into homes around the world, telling people what thhis plans were. >> barbara starr, roland? >> barbara, when he retired he was one of the leading voices

who marshalled support so he made the case why it was important to the military so he did lots of things like that after he retired as well in terms of city life. >> absolutely, he remained active as long as his health was good. he suffered from cancer at some point, beat that. this is a man who is absolutely revered in army and american military history. >> barbara, thanks for that. we'll be talking about general norman shwarzkopf in the next few days. alina has the rest of today's top stories. >> former president george h.w. bush may be battling a fever at a houston icu unit but not planning on going anywhere. in a message to supporters his chief of staff jeanne becker said his condition is not dire. he has every intention of staying put and my favorite part "we can put the harps back in the closet."

at 88 years old george h.w. bush is the oldest living president. police in new york are searching for a woman who pushed a man off a subway right into an oncoming train. nypd surveillance video shows the suspect running away from the station. before the incident the woman was apparently seen walking back and forth on the platform and even talking to herself. north korea likely deceived the u.s. and its asian allies deliberately, catching them off guard before the launch of its long range rocket. according to an official the likely scenario is that north korea was lying about reported technical problems days before the launch. another conclusion is this that north korea just knows how to counter u.s. intel on what it's up there. it's the end of the line for a beloved superhero or is it?

marvel comics 700th issue of "the amazing spider-man" just hit store yards. after a 50-year run he's killed off by dr. oto octavious. what a tangled web it is. stay tuned. might not be over yet. peter parker's demise after a 50-year run sets the stage for a new series. marvel plans to debut next month and it will be called "superior spider-man." >> that's a sad moment. comic book, stand lee was the writer, they changed the world with peter parker. before then superheroes were square jawed perfect green lantern, superman. spider-man was the marvel deviation, superheroes with a problem. he was a teenager all screwed up like everybody else. moment of silence for peter parker. >> they say his permanence remains and he casts a long shadow so he will be back.

>> i feel superheroes are like soap opera stars. you can't trust they're really dead. >> ron, how many comic books did you collect as a kid? >> don't go there. >> a lot of marvel, man. roland? >> the jury will strike that last comment. >> he was passionate. not that i want to move on to anything serious but back to our starting point with the fiscal cliff, who is not a superhero. president obama is holding a meeting at the white house with four congressional leaders. it would help to have a superhero in there. we bring in senator olympia snowe, a moderate republican from maine, one of her final days as a senator, she decided not to run for re-election because of what she called the atmosphere of polarization in washington. thank you for joining us. the atmosphere of polarization is perhaps clearer today than it

has been at any other time. the very reason you stated that you decided not to run for congress. have you hoped that we will be able to get past it to fix this problem? >> absolutely. even under the worst case scenarios i could not imagine that we would be in the position that we're in today during the christmas holiday, still struggling to reach a resolution to this consequential question. it does raise the issue as to what is it going to require for our leadership and for members of congress and the president to get together during these very serious times for this country. >> you know, speaker boehner, harry reid mentioned that they had put a bill forward, the senate put a bill forward in july, the house put a bill forward in august, but the bill in july voted to extend the bush tax cuts to households making under $250,000, in other words

to increase taxes for those making above $250,000. you didn't vote in favor of that bill. no republicans did. but now, with a couple of days left to go, what happens? at some point we're going to have a number. there are going to be a lot of other things, it's going to be $250,000 or $400,000 or $1 million. how do you get a deal done? >> i think first of all it's got to start with the leaders and the president at the white house this afternoon, hopefully they'll agree to a framework. secondly it will begin in the senate, in my estimation, to address this and to modify maybe that legislation to go to the 400,000 the president suggested. my kerve wconcern was carving o small businesses in the vote in july. this is what the senate was designed to do by our founding fathers, that is to bring, to develop a consensus and we have to start now and i think it has to begin in the senate, and if we can get it past passed in the

senate, send it to the house and i hope the speaker can get this job done before the end of this year and not defer it to next year. we got to demonstrate we have some capacity left to make decisions in washington on these very significant issues for the country. >> let me ask you this, though. we keep seeing pictures. everybody's meeting today which is great but we see pictures of john boehner and barack obama and many people who know these two men feel perhaps they could have a deal. we think to the budget and debt ceiling debacle. neither john boehner and to some degree mitch mcconnell have the ability to go back to their caucuses and get them to rally behind a deal they make. has that changed or does this change as we get closer to the deadline? >> i think it will change closer to the deadline. it will require the leaders to talk to their caucuses and talk to these individual members of the senate and the house of representatives and understanding and underscoring

the peril we place in the country at this moment in time and that we have to resolve these issues. american people should not count on a stalemate. we're here to do our jobs in washington and we're seeing this failure demonstrated time and again because of ideological and political and philosophical stubbornness. what about the entire country? what about the good of the country? that's what's at stake for america, and i think that members of congress individually and collectively are responsible and the leadership has to impart that. >> talk to me about this. i certainly don't want to demonize people who ideologically believe taxes shouldn't go up on anyone or don't want taxes to go up because they think it's damaging to the economy. i think there are a lot of americans who are quite prepared to demonize people who will not change their view or cast a vote because it offends grover norquist. what role do the pledges play in our inability to compromise? >> well, i'm certain it does

play a role. i've never signed these pledges because my obligation to the people who elected me and that's the way it should be for each member of congress, because times change. the circumstances change, you have to address the issue at hand. it is important to have extending the tax cuts for especially the middle income but secondly to put spending cuts on the table. we have a large debt problem and i understand as far as the republican position is concerned, so that does have credibility, and we have to come to the table on both of those issues, but i think more than anything else, what is deeply troubling is that you can't get congress and the president to reach any accord on anything. we can't even do routine business, let alone the matters that could affect the future of this country. >> olympia snowe you and what you represent will be missed in

the senate. senator olympia snowe republican from maine who will not be in the next congress. up ahead they're known as the central park five, the group convicted, sent to prison and years later exonerated for the brutal assault on the central park jogger. the story is the subject of a rifting new documentary, the director and one of the central park five join us next. to pack a bowling ball. that was ups. and who called ups? you did, bob. i just asked a question. it takes a long time to pack a bowling ball. the last guy pitched more ball packers. but you... you consulted ups. you found a better way. that's logistics. that's margin. find out what else ups knows. i'll do that. you're on a roll. that's funny. i wasn't being funny, bob. i know.

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it was a crime that made headlines across the country in 199, it was all the rage in new york city, the 28-year-old white wall street investment banker jogging through central park when she was brutally assaulted, rained, left for dead. she was in a coma. five black and latino teenagers were arrested and convicted, they became known as the central park five. they spent between 6 and 13 years in prison, until a serial rapist confessed to the crime and they were exonerated. their story is the subject of a new documentary. >> five youths were arrested at 96th street all between 14 and 15 years of age. >> they got them! >> you can only imagine the pressure to have this crime solved and solved quickly. >> first we was all together,

then they start to put us in different rooms separately. >> what did you do? who were you with? who did you come with? >> the tone was scary. i felt like they might take to us the back of the precinct and kill us. >> one of the directors, sarah burns is here along with raymond santana, one of the central park five. is acamera, you don't mind being associated with ken burns, the other director. this opens in theaters when? >> it's open now playing at the ifc center in new york and a number of cities around the country. >> roy manned, let's talk about this for a second. you and the other guys were brought in for questioning, and you guys confessed. >> yes. >> how did that happen? how did you confess? >> being 14 years old, not knowing the system, and you know, a lot of pressure. that's the number one ingredient when a 14-year-old kid is put under a tremendous amount of pressure and it's unknown, doesn't know what's going to happen and when is it going to end, after a while you get to

the point of breaking down, you'll be able to really much tell the cops whatever they want to hear. >> what was the impression, were you kept awake, denied food, water? >> yes, all that. no food, no water, no sleep, lack of supervision, parents in and out the room, never really fully there. my grandmother didn't comprehend what was going on at the time, and so that's just part of the tactics they used on us besides the constant yelling in the face and the different officers you know lunging like they're going to attack you so for a 14-year-old kid that's overwhelming especially when you never dealt with that before. >> sarah, this is the thing you see often in movies, it's a horrible crime, everybody is thinking about it. think back to new york in those days it was a city on fire almost. >> the murder rate was extremely high. >> they needed to arrest somebody and even the media that's usually critical of the police or often critical of the

police weren't in this case. everybody needed these guys arrested. >> right, the story was it made sense to people and a lot of that had to do with exactly what was going on in new york. the crime rates were extremely high. it was the peak of the murder rate you're dealing with the crack epidemic and people were afraid. they were afraid walking down the street, expected to get mugged on a daily basis. it's a different city thant is now and that contributed to people's fear and their desire to have this solved and solved quickly. there's a lot of pressure on everyone. >> did you get a sense of how soon after the convictions that doubts began to emerge within the system? how early did, was there a sense that something was wrong? >> there were always people who were saying not many, but there are always a few people sort of saying wait a second, there are some problems here. these confessions, these statements don't fit the facts. it doesn't quite hold together but it was not until the actual perpetrator came forward that anyone seriously reinvestigated this and if he hadn't come forward, none of us would be --

>> how many years? >> 13 years later. >> one issue dealing with this case we cannot avoid and that is you had a white female executive, you have black latino boys. this was a modern day scottsborough boys, black man and hispanic man who were targeted. race played a critical role in the story. >> there's no question. the language you would see in the press, the animal references, the term "wild" came out of here, they were called wolf pack, savage beasts, this kind of language that you see in this case coverage, it's the language of lynching and the way the media covered it had everything to do with race. >> raymond you spent i don't know how many years in jail now. what are you most afraid of? >> not being able to provide for my daughter properly is number

one, also always having that label of being looked at negative, come into a room and the person looks at you too long, do they recognize me as one of the central park five and if so, is it negative or is it positive? >> i told you i had seen the movie, watched it on demand. you route for raymond throughout the entire movie. he has the warm smile, you want this guy to work out but what i fear i think most and i bring to this job consistently is what happened to your story, a mob mentality, a mob decided something was true, which was not true, and no one stood up to go wait a minute, let's get this from the beginning. >> people bought into the story, it made sense to them. this time people were so afraid it was easy to blame that on the particular demographic and that was and minority teenaged boys were seen as a source of all of these problems so it was easy for people to buy this story that the police gave it to the press and they ran with it. there was dna testing in those days.

they tested the dna, a single sample, didn't match any of the kids and they plowed ahead anyway. >> nypd are coming after your film for some reason. what's to do with that? >> there's an ongoing civil suit in this case, raymond and the others are suing the city of new york and the lapd for their wrongful convictions and we've been drawn into that case. the city of new york subpoenaed our outtakes from the film in hopes of bolstering their case somehow and we have refused to turn those things over. we believe we're protected by the journalist's privilege so we filed the motion to quash and we'll wait for a judge to decide. >> good to have you both here. thank you very much, sarah burns and raymond santana. raymond continued good luck with your life. keep that smile. you don't look like a guy who spent a lot of years in jail doing something you didn't do. share brotherly love.

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. welcome back. 28 minutes after the hour. some top stories. it's not clear who will replace lisa jackson as head of the environmental protection agency. jackson announced she will step down in january, just after the president's state of the union address. the epa created new

standards for air pollution from coal power plants on her watch. jackson said her deputy is well qualified to take her place. slugger hideki matsui announced he's retiring from baseball. it's rare that an athlete retiring is international news but matsui came to the u.s. to play for the new york yankees back in 2003 and hit a glam ran slam in his first game in yankee stadium, also the 2009 world series mvp. before he came to the u.s. he was already the biggest star on japan's biggest team. behold the most annoying words of 2012. classic time honored whatever, third year at the top, annoying pick, those on the list are like, you know, and just sayin'. >> like. >> like you know just sayin'

whatever. >> my nieces i stop them and say no. >> what if they say like? >> absolutely. it is forbidden in the house unless you use it properly. >> can i just point out hideki matsui when i spent time in japan he was much more popular than ichiro even though ichiro was a greater baseball player. ichiro was reviewed as remote and distance. hideki was the guy next door you could have a beer with. >> i remember when he came to the u.s. maybe this is a sign i'm getting older, 2003 doesn't seem like that long ago. >> he's retiring? really, didn't he just get here? >> were you collecting baseball cards? >> no i was not. >> are you sure? >> all right. >> when alina started i was aware god zillizilla was being n

out. a high level meeting to find a fiscal cliff deal. our next guest says the whole thing is going nuclear. we'll talk to ken rogoff on the economy. plus amazing terrifying video when a 33-ton shark tank explodes. you do not want to be near the shark, who would be pretty annoyed. we'll show you the rest of this when we come back. [music: artist: willy moon song: "yeah yeah" label: universal]

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welcome back to "starting point." >> good morning, everybody. it's a fight between world powers with agonized parents and children caught right in the middle. russian president vladimir putin signed a bill that bans u.s. families from adopting russian orphans thought to be payback for a u.s. law that attackles human rights abuses in russia. moscow says too many orphans have been abused by their american parents. the state department is willing to talk more about keeping children safe. first the fiscal cliff, now get this, container cliff? posing a threat to the u.s. economy, nearly 15,000 dockworkers from texas to maryland are threatening to strike starting sunday. that could shut down 14 key shipping ports and cripple commerce across the country. the dockworkers are demanding higher container royalties to boost their pay. secretary of state hillary

clinton's spokesman says she will be back to work next week. she spent most of december fighting off a stomach flu and concussion after she fainted. doctors have grounded her from overseas travel for a couple more weeks. she could soon testify before congress about that attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. have you ever been at an aquarium and wondered what would happen if the glass broke. take a look. amazing and terrifying video out of shanghai, china. 33-ton shark tank exploded sending sharks flying everywhere and shoppers running for their lives. at least four people were in front of the tank when it cracked as you saw there. 16 people suffered cuts and bruises, nobody was seriously hurt. three lemon sharks died. officials are investigating whether cold temperatures along with shoddy design may have caused this. >> i'm not sure this gives you the story you want.

i got bit by a shark in front of the gap. >> shanghai known for its rigorous building standards. >> i love shanghai but this is always the criticism. is everything built right because it looks good. >> fabulous city but a little shoddy in some of the standards. >> that's a weird story. >> i've never heard of that happening. >> never before. we cover a lot of crazy stories. one of the crazy stories we cover on cnn is the fiscal cliff. we'll wait to see if a critical meeting at the white house will prevent us from falling over the fiscal cliff. congressional leaders meet with president obama and vice president biden if hopes of coming close to a deal. senior democratic officials say they can't find forward a path in this meeting it's over. ken rogoff from harvard university, ken is a prolific author, probably one of the greatest minds on economic crises, former chief economist at the international monetary fund.

tell us the truth about this, ken, not that you don't usually. but this is what people want to know. what happens, if they don't come up with a deal and the deadline comes and goes, what happens? >> well most likely they'll reach a deal in a few weeks, there will be this cry, everybody will be screaming because their taxes are going up and spending went down and they'll come to a deal. this is an artificial crisis. we have a 20, 30-year path that doesn't work. they can't agree the democrats want to go off in this direction, the republicans off in this direction, they can't agree so they just said we'll make a deal. if we can't agree by the end of 2012 we'll jump off this cliff and here we are. >> an interesting point you've made when you look at the frac, parliamentary parties in europe, a fractuous extremely group come

to power, we don't think of that happening in america. we're the worst of a parliamentary system right now. >> that's ugly here. for all the things we complain about our government it's pretty good than most countries. they swing this way and that way and 20 different parties and we're in this situation where there's no iron center here to anchor things and it's not just this fiscal cliff. it's everything. >> we are in a quasi-parliamentary system with political institutions aren't built for it. our structure does not allow for this level of partisanship. as you look at this as you point out, we are on an unsustainable path in the long run in our fiscal kind of situation. republicans and democrats have to live with each other probably for the next four years. at least for the next two years but likely the next four years.

is there a path that you think makes sense that is a truce line that would be reasonable for both sides to accept? >> well, we'd really like to see some forward movement in the bigger problems, the tax system, there are things we need to spend more money on, some things we need to spend less money on. it's dysfunctional and those ideas are out there. they've been discussed but they've reached this point where both sides are saying i'm going to hold my breath until i get my way. >> i think when you talk about the partisan bickering is one thing but you need to remember there are real americans who are going to be affected by this. if we go over the cliff on january 2nd, the payroll tax goes up by two percentage points. 2 million americans with unemployment benefits will no longer have them. for those people that's really, really important. i think we need to remember that. >> we keep on saying this could reduce economic growth enough that it sends the u.s. into a recession. you're of the school that for

many, for many reasons, we may still be in a recession. >> oh, yeah. we still haven't recovered from 2008. we have an unemployment rate near 8%, we're way below where we would have been. >> this is a bad time as much as it's a creative crisis it has real consequences. >> it's part of why we're having the crisis, if we were booming they could come to a deal a lot easier in the banana republics as you mentioned we don't want to be like it's exactly when things aren't going well they can't agree. >> can you call this an artificial crisis, ken, do you believe that those of us, the business that we're in, we are playing a role i this drama, because when you say artificial crisis come january 1 it's really not that big of a deal. >> the silver linings in this country we at least try to do something in advance and don't wait until, that is a silver lining. we're still borrowing money for nothing practically. it's not like we couldn't just

keep spending for a while. the trouble is you can see the handwriting on the wall. do you cut taxes, do you cut spending, what do you do? >> set the fiscal cliff aside for one moment. you've done extensive research on recovery from recessions. where are we in the current recovery? what in your estimation does 2013 look like from an economic standpoint. >> fairly normal from world war ii financial crisis, housing recovers on cue five or six years later. the good news is that there's stable underlying growth. the bad news is you don't get the zoom you got out of it during the depression. >> we're in year five of a seven year process. >> more than seven years. >> last time you were here you said we were half way through regardless of who wins in 2012. the next four years would not look much better than the past four years. >> we're going to have, i don't know if not very much better than the past four but we're not going to have fantastic growth.

unemployment will take many more years to feel normal, so we have many years left in the recovery but hopefully in two or three years we feel like we're moving there and not at the starting point. >> let's talk about the global picture here. you have slow growth in china, slow growth in india, slow growth in brazil, no growth in europe for all intents and purposes, so america chugging along somewhere between 2.75 and 3% probably around now is one of the best deals going, one of the best things happening. >> everybody looks at us as the bright spot. they're saying you're the only ones doing okay. why are you doing this to us? why are you doing this to yourself. >> particularly because a lot of the world blames this for the first time it happened. >> you talk about spending in washington, d.c., but one of the reasons we're also as a nation in this dilemma is that the nation was stuck in this. last 20-some-odd years frankly we were living in the false economy, credit, credit, credit t catches up with you.

>> absolutely. what happened in 2008 didn't happen out of the blue. we had built up this huge bubble, we had been living beyond our means in an unsustainable way. >> not d.c., individuals, americans. >> individuals. now it's d.c. >> all right, go ahead. >> compensating for 20 years, or decade of slow income growth since 2000, people trying to maintain the lifestyle and that longer term issue is there anything on the trajectory accelerating the growth with the living standards, do you see that reversing any time soon or is this the new normal for average american workers? >> i think it will take decades to go back to what we saw before. i don't think anything will reverse this quickly. we're in this globalized world winner takes all. >> so in that world is it kind of structurally there will be tight finances for government at all levels if earnings aren't going up, are we looking at and yet the number of seniors are

doubling in society? this is kind of very structural pressures. >> that's right and that's what underlies the fiscal cliff. they're looking out beyond 2020, all these people retiring, providing defense costs more and more because of less efficiencies in government stuff so the calculus isn't good. it isn't good for us or anyone but there are things to do. there are a lot of things we can do better, more private infrastructure spending, improving our education system, making entitlement systems, means tested. >> shifting federal spending from consumption to investment as for the future. >> all right, ken thanks very much, and we'll be leaning on you for guidance over the course of the next few days. who doesn't want a little eva longoria in her life. she's helping fellow latinas get a college education. are easy with free pickup

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yesterday we brought you the shirtless matthew mcconaughey. today something the men at the desk can enjoy, eva longoria. alina cho is here with today's big stars big giving. >> you're thinking here is a beautiful woman with a great personality. >> and charitable heart. >> you're absolutely right. eva longoria is a famous hollywood star and actor. when you sit down and what she's dedicated her life together she'll tell you it's giving back. >> i've been pulled a million different directions with supporting aids in africa or sex trafficking in thailand or dolphins in japan and you can't do everything so in thinking what do i really want to do, where can i create the most impact. >> reporter: to answer that question you could see eva lon goria looked in the mirror. >> i knew i wanted to be in

women and the latina community. >> reporter: best known for the vixen on "desperate housewives." >> how are you? >> the best you ever had. >> reporter: longoria had humble beginnings. the youngest of four daughters, born in texas, to mexican-american parents. >> i wasn't the first to go to college. it was expected. >> reporter: let's be honest when you went to college it wasn't a walk in the park. you had to work. >> i was flipping burgers, assistant to a dentist, worked in a car shop changing oil, i was anaerobics instructor. >> reporter: 17% of latinas drop out of high school, fewer than half of adult latinas hold college degrees so in 2010 the actress started a foundation foe cussing on helping latinas get a college education. on the day we meet up with her at this high school in los angeles she's the keynote speaker at a graduation for

parents. >> everyone here has taken a stand for their child. >> reporter: the program is called piqe. longoria's foundation is helping to fund it. >> it's a nine-week program parents can take in order to help them navigate the institution of schools. it is not easy. i've sat with a lot of these parents before the program and they didn't know what a transcript looked like, they didn't know what a gpa was, they didn't know what s.a.t. meant. >> reporter: children of parents who graduate are guaranteed admission to one of several schools in the cal state university system provided they meet the basic requirements like juana martinez. >> i only went to elementary school. >> reporter: she graduated from pk so her daughter, alejandra, could have a better future. >> make your mother proud. i don't want the latieina community to just be a large community, i want them an educated community. >> something longoria talked

about on the campaign trail and now as a co-chair of president obama's inaugural committee. are you nerve us? >> i'm very nervous. >> what will you wear? >> who knows, i don't know. >> reporter: politics and philanthropy, making a difference in both. >> i'm funding these programs because i believe in them. i think it's important that you, yourself as a role model, as a philanthropist, as an activist that you yourself give out of your back pocket. i would give my shirt off before i would ask to you give yours. >> that's right she's the real deal and remember, hey, listen, stop it, guys. remember, the latino community is the largest and fastest growing demographic right here in the united states. we saw how important the latino community was in the election. eva lon goria so serious about this, she's actually getting her master's degree in chicano studies at cal state north ridge. when she talks about her cause she wants an authentiauthentic.

>> 20 years ago i wrote about the history of the relationship between hollywood and politics. for most stars did what she did, be out on the campaign trail. what is the bono effect since the '90s, they're more likely to create their own institutions and take direct action, matthew mcconaughey yesterday, eva longoria today. that would not be bogart and mccall. there's more stepping into the spotlight. >> they use that fame for something good. >> i'm born and raised in texas and what's critically important for latinos in america is to have the sophisticated political infrastructure. she's involved in terms of fund-raising when it comes to candidates because when they had the huge rallies several years ago part of the problem was you had boots on the ground but didn't have the political infrastructure to make that reality. >> and we've seen the deep hollywood and charitable knowledge. what did you take out of that?

>> i took out of the fact yesterday matthew mcconaughey was shirtless and the last thing eva longoria said i'd give the shirt off my back. i think it's time to get paid. the end point is next on. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.

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time for the end point, will is just jumping to get in there. >> i was ready. thank you. i was going to bring a thoughtful emotion-less conversation about the gun control debate. i looked over and i see this. and how are you going to have a gun control debate sitting next to this. >> they shoot a cap gun, we have a howitzer when we score touchdowns but no i'm not going to see you ali next friday, text a&m and oklahoma, i got to support my johnny football.

we know the sooners what they did to the longhorns so we'll take care of business on the texans. >> can't go there on college football. one thing, man. >> baseball, hollywood -- >> not college football but quick, olympia snowe it h it right the fiscal cliff was designed to create a machine to force them to compromise and even that can't do it. what does that say about where we're going to get. >> 2013? these guys have to live with each other for two years, probably four. at some point they have to decide either they get along or kick the can down the road to the kids. >> it was a poisoned pill, the whole idea you don't want to take it. >> the fiscal cliff. >> alina cho asked me whether i'd like to do a diet challenge with her in january. the answer is probably no to that. thanks for joining us today. "cnn newsroom" with victor blackwell starts right after this.

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